Fascia Is Able to Actively Contract and May Thereby Influence Musculoskeletal Dynamics

The following is a research article on fascia, published in the Frontiers in Physiology.
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Edited by:
Marc-Antoine Custaud, Université d’Angers, France
Reviewed by:
Loïc Treffel, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, France Laurence Stevens, Lille University of Science and Technology, France
*Correspondence:
Robert Schleip robert.schleip@uni-ulm.de
Specialty section:
This article was submitted to Clinical and Translational Physiology, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physiology
Received: 02 October 2018 Accepted: 13 March 2019 Published: 02 April 2019
Citation:
Schleip R, Gabbiani G, Wilke J, Naylor I, Hinz B, Zorn A, Jäger H, Breul R, Schreiner S and Klingler W (2019) Fascia Is Able to Actively Contract and May Thereby Influence Musculoskeletal Dynamics: A Histochemical and Mechanographic Investigation. Front. Physiol. 10:336. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00336
ORIGINAL RESEARCH
published: 02 April 2019 doi: 10.3389/fphys.2019.00336
Fascia Is Able to Actively Contract and May Thereby Influence Musculoskeletal Dynamics:
A Histochemical and Mechanographic Investigation
Robert Schleip1,2,3*, Giulio Gabbiani4, Jan Wilke5, Ian Naylor6, Boris Hinz7, Adjo Zorn3, Heike Jäger8, Rainer Breul9, Stephanie Schreiner8 and Werner Klingler3,10
1 Department of Neuroanesthesiology, Neurosurgical Clinic, Ulm University, Günzburg, Germany, 2 Department of Sports Medicine and Health Promotion, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany, 3 Fascia Research Group, Experimental Anesthesiology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany, 4 Department of Pathology and Immunology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, 5 Department of Sports Medicine, Institute of Sport Science, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany, 6 School of Pharmacy, University of Bradford, Bradford, United Kingdom, 7 Laboratory of Tissue Repair and Regeneration, Matrix Dynamics Group, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, 8 Division of Neurophysiology, Ulm University, Ulm, Germany, 9 Anatomische Anstalt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München, Germany, 10 Faculty of Health School – Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Fascial tissues form a ubiquitous network throughout the whole body, which is usually regarded as a passive contributor to biomechanical behavior. We aimed to answer the question, whether fascia may possess the capacity for cellular contraction which, in turn, could play an active role in musculoskeletal mechanics. Human and rat fascial specimens from different body sites were investigated for the presence of myofibroblasts using immunohistochemical staining for α-smooth muscle actin (n = 31 donors, n = 20 animals). In addition, mechanographic force registrations were performed on isolated rat fascial tissues (n = 8 to n = 18), which had been exposed to pharmacological stimulants. The density of myofibroblasts was increased in the human lumbar fascia in comparison to fasciae from the two other regions examined in this study: fascia lata and plantar fascia [H(2) = 14.0, p < 0.01]. Mechanographic force measurements revealed contractions in response to stimulation by fetal bovine serum, the thromboxane A2 analog U46619, TGF-β1, and mepyramine, while challenge by botulinum toxin type C3–used as a Rho kinase inhibitor– provoked relaxation (p < 0.05). In contrast, fascial tissues were insensitive to angiotensin II and caffeine (p < 0.05). A positive correlation between myofibroblast density and contractile response was found (rs = 0.83, p < 0.001). The hypothetical application of the registered forces to human lumbar tissues predicts a potential impact below the threshold for mechanical spinal stability but strong enough to possibly alter motoneuronal coordination in the lumbar region. It is concluded that tension of myofascial tissue is actively regulated by myofibroblasts with the potential to impact active musculoskeletal dynamics.